Public Education Matters

ACTION ALERT: Urge your state Senator to support the Fair School Funding Plan now!

Featured Education Matters guest: 

• Stephen Dyer, Director of Government Relations, Communications & Marketing, Ohio Education Association
  • Prior to joining OEA, Stephen Dyer was the Education Policy Fellow at Innovation Ohio, a Columbus-based Progressive think tank, where he fights for the right of all Ohio’s children to receive a world-class education, regardless of where they live. He has authored several reports for IO that have sought to ensure the fundamental right of every Ohio child to a world-class education. He is widely considered one of the state’s top education policy experts, and one of the few people in the country with the experience of actually implementing and leading the debate on every major aspect of education reform from teacher quality to student achievement to school choice to equitable financing. He has been published in Education Week – the nation’s education policy newspaper of record, as well as The 74 and Real Clear Education. He has been quoted extensively in the New York Times, Washington Post and Rolling Stone, among other publications. Dyer has headlined conferences and town halls throughout the state, and is one of the state’s most sought-after education policy panelists. He was the keynote speaker on Ohio’s charter school experience at the Cleveland Press Club.
  • His 2011 report for Innovation Ohio, which called into question ECOT’s money-making practices, many have seen as the impetus for the eventual implosion of the school that has been revealed to be the state’s all-time, largest taxpayer ripoff and scandal. He has written extensive, groundbreaking reports for Innovation Ohio on school funding, charter schools, teacher evaluation, accountability and the Cleveland Transformation Plan. He spent a year as a fellow with the Education Policy Fellowship Program through the Institute for Educational Leadership in Washington, D.C. and served as part of an American delegation to observe the Chinese education system in Shanghai and Beijing. He recently served on a panel before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, informing the commission about how school funding systems can affect academics.
  • Dyer also is a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Akron, where he has received accolades for his classroom teaching.
  • Dyer has spent his career serving his community, first as an award-winning journalist with the Akron Beacon Journal, then as an award-winning State Representative representing Ohio’s Summit and Portage counties. 
  • As a reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal for about a decade, Dyer won awards and recognition from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press and the Cleveland Press Club. He collaborated on an innovative project called “Ohio: Look at the State We’re In” that analyzed where Ohio ranked on various quality of life issues. That collaboration earned Dyer and two other reporters nominations for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize.
  • After winning his seat in 2006 to represent the 43rd House District, Dyer fought tirelessly to once and for all fix our state’s school funding system. He spent two years developing his own system, then when Gov. Ted Strickland introduced the Ohio Evidence Based Model in 2009, Dyer was the chairman of the subcommittee that transformed the new system into one that earned the Frank Newman Award from the Education Commission of the States – recognizing the country’s most “bold, innovative, non-partisan” education reform of 2009. It remains the only school funding plan produced since the 1930s that promised to lower Ohio’s property taxes to pay for schools.
  • Dyer received the Leadership in Education Policy Award from the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, which was the group that sued the state over its old, unconstitutionally funded system. He is the only Ohio legislator ever given an award from the group. He received the 2010 Friend of Public Education Award from the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the 2010 Public Service Award from the Ohio Association of Career and Technical Education, the 2009 Homer F. Mincy Award from the Alliance for Adequate School Funding (a group representing the state’s suburban districts), and the 2009 Civic Leadership Award from the Ohio Association for Gifted Children.
  • Dyer grew up in Hudson, Ohio, and attended Western Reserve Academy, where his parents taught. He graduated from Tufts University in Massachusetts with a Bachelor’s Degree in English, earned a Master’s Degree in journalism from Kent State University and a law degree from the University of Akron. He lives in Green with his wife of 19 years, Melissa, and his two sons, Logan, 13, and Carson, 9, both of whom attend Green Local Schools. 

In this episode:

"It's a really exciting time, and it's essential that our educators exercise their voices at the state and local levels to make sure that this money gets spent in the best way possible to ensure the ultimate success for our students."

• 1:35 - $4.5 billion in ARP money for Ohio's schools: A lot of money and a lot of opportunity for our kids
• 2:30 - The ARP regulations require that educators and their unions be given the opportunity to provide input on how the money is spent. Read the full language here. 
• 3:50 - The 16 ways the ARP money can be used, including investing in personnel, communities, buildings, and technology
• 5:00 - Different needs in different districts
• 5:30 - Maintaining and growing the ARP investments through the Fair School Funding Plan
• 8:45 - The Fair School Funding Plan in the hands of the state Senate and the fate of the last one-time federal education funding package in Ohio
• 11:40 - Call to action for Ohio's educators and community members to contact their state Senator to support the Fair School Funding Plan
• 12:45 - Advice for how to advocate for students' needs in local decisions about how ARP and FSFP money is spent
• 13:45 - "If they're getting away with it, it's your fault."
• 15:00 - The opportunity to use ARP money to implement the FSFP faster
• 16:46 - A former state legislator's perspective on whether the state would ever be at this point: "If you had told me ten years ago that we'd go from the state defunding education by 1.8 billion to the state investing in education by 1.8 billion, and the state going from no school funding formula to a rational one that actually calculates costs and needs of students, I would have told you we must have legalized pot because you're high"
• 17:55 - "We are on the precipice of doing something great for our kids, and not just now but into the future."

"What we want to make sure happens is that every kid in every community, regardless of zip code, regardless of background, is able to achieve their dreams. And right now, we have the opportunities lying right in front of us to deliver this to every student in the state, and it's up to us to make sure that it happens." 

Connect with us:

• Email [email protected] with your feedback or ideas for future Education Matters topics
• Like OEA on Facebook
• Follow OEA on Twitter
• Follow OEA on Instagram
• Get the latest news and statements from ...

To connect with a crisis counselor through the National Crisis Text Line in Ohio, text 4HOPE to 741 741. The Crisis Text Line is a free, confidential service available 24/7 via text on mobile devices

Wellness Wednesday: DeStress Disco Bash 

• Wednesday, May 26 @ 6 p.m.
• Open to all OEA members
• Click here to register

Featured Education Matters guest: 

• Andrew Smith, MSW, LISW-S
  • Andrew is a school social worker in the Sheffield-Sheffield Lake City Schools (Lorain County) and has over twenty years of experience in public education.  Prior to serving as a school social worker, Andrew was a middle school science teacher for the first fifteen years of his career. He received his undergraduate degree from Bowling Green State University in science education and his Master of Social Work from Cleveland State University in the area of direct practice.  Andrew received his school social worker license through Case Western Reserve University and Baldwin Wallace.
  • Andrew has gained his experience working in child welfare, public school, crisis counseling, and private practice.  Andrew has specialized training in working with at-risk adolescents and those with relationship or mood disorders.  Andrew is a trainer for the Lorain County Schools Crisis Counseling Team, and is a QPR Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Instructor.   
  • Andrew is the President of the Sheffield-Sheffield Lake Teachers’ Association (OEA/NEA) and currently serves as the OEA Wellness Cadre Chairperson and sits on the Board of Directors for the Northeastern Ohio Education Association.  

In this episode:

"These are the experts. These are the people in our membership who really know how we provide good mental health wellness and mental health support for people."

• 1:30 - Wraparound service personnel, including school counselors, school social workers, school psychologists, and school nurses coming together with teachers and ESPs to form the OEA Wellness Cadre early in the pandemic
• 3:15 - Launching Wellness Wednesdays to provide resources and professional knowledge for educators' personal lives as well as an outlet through fun events to reconnect
• 5:25 - Planning a disco party to celebrate surviving the school year. "We understand this pandemic has twists and turns, but there are some needs for celebrations. As OEA members, we have made sacrifices to support our students, support our communities, and we're on the tip of a social-emotional iceberg."
• 7:15 - Educators struggle with all or nothing approaches and recognizing their own capacity: "If you cannot take care of yourself, you are going to be at a limited capacity to help others."
• 8:40 - Educating educators about the power of writing out task lists rather than setting reminders on your phone, reconnecting with other people, and other good coping strategies
• 10:15 - It's okay to put up limits and find balance. 
• 11:30 - Moving away from instant replies
• 12:30 - Battling burnout
• 13:45 - When to seek professional support and how to access your district's Employee Assistance Program
• 15:15 - Using the National Crisis Text Line: Throughout Ohio, you can text the keyword “ 4hope ” to 741 741 to be connected to a trained Crisis Counselor. 
• 16:40 - Spreading the word about Wellness Wednesdays and planning for the future of the program
• 17:45 - "The pandemic has really brought to light the critical importance of mental health support."
• 18:45 - Joining the OEA Wellness Cadre

"People have to be mindful of their own capacity. When we talk about a balloon, when we're filling that balloon whether that's with air or water, there is a capacity. We can't just add a whole bunch of other 15 minute things or another event, we have to stay balanced. I think educators struggle with that."

Connect with us:

• Email [email protected] with your feedback or ideas for future Education Matters topics
• Like OEA on Facebook
• Follow OEA on Twitter
• Follow OEA on Instagram
• Get the latest news and statements from OEA here
• Learn more about where OEA stands on the issues 
• Keep up to date on the legislation affecting Ohio public schools and educators with OEA's Legislative Watch

About us:

• The Ohio Education Association represents about 120,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who work in Ohio’s schools, colleges, and universities to help improve public education and the lives of Ohio’s children. OEA members provide professional services to benefit students, schools, and the public in virtually every position needed to run Ohio’s schools.
• Education Matters host Katie Olmsted serves as Media Relations Consultant for the Ohio Education Association. She joined OEA in May, 2020, after a ten-year career as a television reporter, anchor, and producer. Katie comes from a family of educators and is passionate about telling educators' stories and advocating for Ohio's students. 

This episode was recorded in late April, 2021.

The Ohio Education Association has partnered with the Children's Hunger Alliance in support of the Breakfast in the Classroom program | Learn more here

For more on some of the recent the Breakfast & Beyond District success stories, click here.

Featured guests: 

• Brenda Lemon, Logan Education Association President
  • A veteran educator, Ms. Lemon began her career teaching Spanish and English. She was a classroom teacher for 18 years and received her Master's degree in Library and Information Science. She currently serves as the Library Media Specialist for Logan-Hocking Local School District.
• Sheri Nott, Logan Education Association Vice President
  • Sheri Nott is a second grade teacher for the Logan Hocking School District. This is her 17th year teaching. 
• Karen Lloyd, Indian Creek Education Association President 
  • After 24 years teaching preschool in the public schools, Ms. Lloyd became a first grade teacher about five years ago. In addition to her leadership role in her local association, she serves as president of the Eastern Ohio Education Association 

In this episode:

“They say that's the most important meal of the day, so with Breakfast in the Classroom, they're all being fed, they all get to eat, and it's cut down on those complaints about their tummies and being hungry so that we can focus more on our education" - Sheri Nott

• Breakfast in the Classroom in Logan-Hocking Schools
  • 1:45 - Breakfast in the Classroom basics
  • 2:15 - The move away from serving breakfast to eligible students in the cafeteria to serving all students in their classrooms
  • 2:45 - The problems with starting the day on an empty stomach and the stigma around accepting food when peers don't get it
  • 3:30 - The need in the Logan-Hocking district, a rural district on the edge of Appalachia 
  • 4:15 - Bringing Breakfast in the Classroom to Logan-Hocking schools: Learning from others, looking for grants, and advocating as a local union
  • 5:30 - Growing the Breakfast in the Classroom program from the idea phase in 2016 to now
  • 6:20 - Making adjustments to make the program work: "A soft start to the day"
  • 8:15 - Starting the day ready to learn
  • 9:15 - Menu options
  • 10:45 - Addressing the food insecurity and safety challenges of feeding kids during the pandemic
  • 12:25 - Talking to other educators about implementing Breakfast in the Classroom programs in their own schools: "Breakfast in the classroom is just feeding kids, so don't overthink it. Just do what we know is right. The science tells us that well-fed kids are better learners. We know that nutrition in early life impacts your health for the rest of your life. We hear all of these things about trauma informed care and taking care of students who are in stressful situations. Certainly food insecurity, not knowing where that next meal is coming from, would be one of those stressful situations."

“Sure, there were concerns about students eating in some areas of buildings and things like that, but once we had that buy in and we were all able to give our ideas and our input, I feel like it took off for us." - Brenda Lemon

• The Indian Creek School District's successful feeding programs | Click here for more details on the district's efforts
  • 14:30 - Bringing the Breakfast in the Classroom program idea back from an OEA RA and getting local buy in
  • 14:50 - Addressing behavioral issues and a lag mid-morning lag in academic effort through feeding programs
  • 16:00 - The high demand for feeding programs in Indian Creek schools
  • 17:00 - Expanding feeding programs beyond the Breakfast in the Classroom program and gaining recognition as a Breakfast and Beyond district
  • 18:20 - The difference the Breakfast in the Classroom program has made for Indian Creek's kids
  • 19:00 - Combatting concerns about a mess in the classroom: "It's really doable. Everybody can work together and this can be accomplished in any building."
  • 20:15 - Nourishing bellies and nourishing brains

“It has really helped. The children get their work done, they eat their breakfast, the teachers embrace it, no one is embarrassed to take a bag because the majority of their friends are eating it. It has just really been a blessing to our students in our district." - Karen Lloyd

Connect with us:

• Email [email protected] with your feedback or ideas for future Education Matters topics
• Like OEA on Facebook
• Follow OEA on Twitter
• Follow OEA on Instagram
• Get the latest news and statements from OEA here
• Learn more about where OEA stands on the issues 
• Keep up to date on the legislation affecting Ohio public schools and educators with OEA's Legislative Watch

About us:

• The Ohio Education Association represents more than 120,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who work in Ohio’s schools, colleges, and universities to help improve public education and the lives of Ohio’s children. OEA members provide professional services to benefit students, schools, and the public in virtually every position needed to run Ohio’s schools.
• Education Matters host Katie Olmsted serves as Media Relations Consultant for the Ohio Education Association. She joined OEA in May, 2020, after a ten-year career as a television reporter, anchor, and producer. Katie comes from a family of educators and is passionate about telling educators' stories and advocating for Ohio's students. She was suffering from a minor cold while recording this episode but is feeling much better now...

This episode was recorded in late April, 2021.

Featured guest: 

• Kara Jankowski, Dayton-area English Learner teacher
  • Kara Jankowski teaches 4th and 5th grade English learners in West Carrollton, Ohio, and is a member of West Carrollton Education Association. In her five years as a teacher, she has taught students from over 30 different countries speaking ten different languages. As a member of Ohio's New Educators (ONE), she enjoys meeting other educators across the state and hearing their stories. 

In this episode:

"Our English Learners are a growing population in the state of Ohio, but they often are ignored, and it's so important that we, not speak for them, but let their voices be heard. I think English learners teachers like me play an important role in that. Because they speak a different language and maybe can't always access information about school, they aren't always the first families to step up and say, 'hey, this thing is unfair;' 'hey, we should change this at our school.' So we need to make sure when there are concerns, or whatever it is they want to say, that they are truly heard and that we're including them in the conversation."

• 1:15 - English Learners (EL), English as a Second Language (ESL), Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL): Many names for one job, teaching students who primarily speak a different language at home besides English
• 1:50 - A day in the life of an EL teacher
• 2:50 - English is a difficult language to learn and sometimes the rules don't make sense, but making connections to other languages helps
• 3:45 - Common misconceptions about EL teachers
• 5:40 - The kind of person who makes an excellent EL teacher
• 7:00 - Communicating and engaging with families of English language learners
• 8:15 - The parent-educator partnership during the pandemic
• 10:05 - "It's not just about those English basics and knowing grammar and how to form a sentence. By helping them with vocabulary and academic language, we are helping them to access their other curriculum better. Not just reading; science, social studies, and then in their daily life. They're able to go out and play a soccer game and communicate with their teammates."
• 10:45 - Trick question: What does the average English language learner look like?
• 11:50 - Creating a more welcoming and supporting environment for English language learners
• 13:10 - Ensuring EL students and their families' voices are heard. 
• 15:20 - "School should be accessible to every child and family that walks through the door, but to add to that, our English learner families are such an asset to our school communities."
• 16:15 - Learning something new everyday from EL students
• 17:00 - Collaborating with other teachers in the district and across the state to improve best practices

"We need more English Learner teachers in classrooms, and so to know that you don't need to know another language is important. We want anyone who feels like this is a job that is appropriate for them, that they can do that if they feel like it is the right fit."

Connect with us:

• Email [email protected] with your feedback or ideas for future Education Matters topics
• Like OEA on Facebook
• Follow OEA on Twitter
• Follow OEA on Instagram
• Get the latest news and statements from OEA here
• Learn more about where OEA stands on the issues 
• Keep up to date on the legislation affecting Ohio public schools and educators with OEA's Legislative Watch

About us:

• The Ohio Education Association represents more than 120,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who work in Ohio’s schools, colleges, and universities to help improve public education and the lives of Ohio’s children. OEA members provide professional services to benefit students, schools, and the public in virtually every position needed to run Ohio’s schools.
• Education Matters host Katie Olmsted serves as Media Relations Consultant for the Ohio Education Association. She joined OEA in May, 2020, after a ten-year career as a television reporter, anchor, and producer. Katie comes from a family of educators and is passionate about telling educators' stories and advocating for Ohio's students. 

This episode was recorded in April, 2021.

Enter the Design Ohio's Future contest to redraw Ohio’s district maps 

• OEA's contest is open to all Ohio middle schoolers, high schoolers, and OEA members. 
• Categories: Most politically competitive | Fewest community splits | Most creative
• DEADLINE UPDATE: Due to intense interest in the contest, the deadline for submissions has been extended until JUNE 1, 2021
• For full details and rules, click here. 

 

Featured guest: 

• Katy Shanahan 
  • Katy Shanahan currently serves as the Ohio State Director for All On The Line, a grassroots advocacy campaign that is part of a national effort to end gerrymandering. She is an attorney who has worked in progressive electoral politics for over a decade with the mission of ensuring that all voters have equitable access to the ballot box and to fair representation. She received both her Juris Doctor and Master's degree in Public Policy and Management from The Ohio State University and is barred to practice law in the state of Ohio and Washington, DC.

In this episode:

"Gerrymandering is a form of cheating during the redistricting process... Here in Ohio, we are home to some of the most gerrymandered districts in the country, and that's true for both our state legislative and congressional maps, and that means for the last decade, Ohioans have been denied any real form of adequate political representation."

• 2:10 - One person, one vote: Redistricting every 10 years to account for how populations have changed or shifted across the last decade 
• 3:30 - Dealing with census data delays
• 5:40 - The importance of accurate census data beyond redistricting, including its impact on school funding
• 7:45 - Ohio's gerrymandering problem
• 9:00 - The ramifications of the disconnect between how Ohioans behave at the ballot box and who gets elected
• 10:30 - Gerrymandering makes Ohio's politics more extreme, to the left and to the right, because the only real competition candidates face is in their primaries, where turnout is the base of the base. Districts must be politically competitive in the general elections.
• 13:10 - The importance of keeping communities whole: "Our communities when they are cracked apart are not as strong as when they are kept together."
• 15:30 - The redistricting reform measures Ohio voters approved in 2015 and 2018
• 17:00 - Messing up maps - villainy or incompetence? "I actually think our map drawers in 2011 were both bad actors and also very good at drawing bad maps"
• 18:30 - Starting with community mapping
• 19:30 - "I'm not here to say that [redistricting] is an easy task. But what I will say is that it's worth the hard work, because what comes out of it is whether or not we have the ability to take charge of our democracy."

"There are so many issues here in Ohio that we're not able to make progress on, not because there isn't public support to make progress on those issues, but because our elected officials don't actually represent us and they don't need to, because our politicians back in 2011 cheated in the redistricting process to gerrymander or manipulate our district lines to give them much more electoral victories than they're actually winning in votes at the ballot box."

Connect with us:

• Have questions about the Design Ohio's Future contest? Email [email protected]
• Email [email protected] with your feedback on the podcast or ideas for future Education Matters topics
• Like OEA on Facebook
• Follow OEA on Twitter
• Follow OEA on Instagram
• Get the latest news and statements from OEA here
• Learn more about where OEA stands on the issues 
• Keep up to date on the legislation affecting Ohio public schools and educators with OEA's Legislative Watch

About us:

• The Ohio Education Association represents more than 120,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who work in Ohio’s schools, colleges, and universities to help improve public education and the lives of Ohio’s children. OEA members provide professional services to benefit students, schools, and the public in virtually every position needed to run Ohio’s schools.
• Education Matters host Katie Olmsted serves as Media Relations Consultant for the Ohio Education Association. She joined OEA in May, 2020, after a ten-year career as a television reporter, anchor, and producer. Katie comes from a family of educators and is passionate about telling educators' stories and advocating for Ohio's students. 

This episode was recorded in April, 2021.

READ THE BLOG POST | Check out Julie Holderbaum's Doing Whatever it Takes: A Changed Perspective post on Voices of Change here

 

Featured guest: 

• Julie Holderbaum, High School English Teacher, Minerva, Ohio
  • Julie Holderbaum has taught high school English for 25 years. She currently teaches 9th and 11th grade at Minerva High School in Minerva, Ohio. She is a frequent contributor to OEA’s Voices of Change blog and has also been published by Plunderbund, Education Week, and the Washington Post’s education blog, Answer Sheet. She lives with her husband and daughter and the family’s chocolate Lab, who keeps her sane when yoga doesn’t 

In this episode:

"There was a lot of fear springing from the unknown. We didn't know how long it was going to last, we didn't know how long it was going to be, people were getting laid off and things were shutting down. And we had a week to get ready for teaching online and none of us had ever done that before, so that was very stressful. And, early on, I figured out, ok, you're going to lose your mind if you just keep functioning the way you're functioning."

• 1:15 - Teaching in-person five days a week all year
• 1:45 - Life in a small, rural community
• 2:45 - The challenges of having a large portion of the school out at any time for quarantines
• 3:30 - The toll the pandemic has taken: "It was just school all the time and therefore stress all the time."
• 5:45 - Setting boundaries, exercising more, and reading books for fun.  
• 6:15 - Concerns about adjusting lesson plans for individual in-person work in the fall while facing concerns about the virus
• 7:05 - "Even though my schedule had to returned to normal, I had to set some limits. Otherwise, I knew I was going to burnout really fast."
• 7:30 - Considering leaving the teaching profession, finding a lack of get-up-and-go, and changing priorities
• 9:15 - Henry Darby, a South Carolina high school principal who took an overnight job at Walmart to help his students, was featured on NBC's TODAY | Watch the full story here
• 10:15 - "When I first saw that, that was my first clue that something was really wrong, because I was kind of angry about it."
• 11:45 - Teachers start to feel down on themselves if they're not going to extraordinary lengths
• 12:30 - "Being a teacher is a large part of my identity... it is who I am. But it can't be the only thing I am."
• 13:20 - Becoming a more effective educator by reassessing priorities and taking care of own needs
• 16:10 - The importance of sharing this perspective with other educators: "Because I know I'm not alone."
• "Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails." - Henry David Thoreau, Walden 
• 17:40 - Recognizing the 'mosquito wing things'

"I feel sometimes that teachers are expected to go above and beyond, and if you're not going above and beyond, if you're just doing a good job within the parameters of your school day, you're kind of looked at like you're slacking."

Connect with us:

• Email [email protected] with your feedback or ideas for future Education Matters topics
• Like OEA on Facebook
• Follow OEA on Twitter
• Follow OEA on Instagram
• Get the latest news and statements from OEA here
• Learn more about where OEA stands on the issues 
• Keep up to date on the legislation affecting Ohio public schools and educators with OEA's Legislative Watch

About us:

• The Ohio Education Association represents more than 120,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who work in Ohio’s schools, colleges, and universities to help improve public education and the lives of Ohio’s children. OEA members provide professional services to benefit students, schools, and the public in virtually every position needed to run Ohio’s schools.
• Education Matters host Katie Olmsted serves as Media Relations Consultant for the Ohio Education Association. She joined OEA in May, 2020, after a ten-year career as a television reporter, anchor, and producer. Katie comes from a family of educators and is passionate about telling educators' stories and advocating for Ohio's students. 

This episode was recorded in March, 2021.

Featured guest: 

• State Rep. Gayle Manning (R-North Ridgeville)
  • State Representative Gayle Manning is currently serving her second term in the Ohio House of Representatives, after serving two four-year terms in the Ohio Senate where she was elected to the Leadership Team as Majority Whip. She represents the 55th Ohio House District, which encompasses a portion of Lorain County.
    Prior to her time in the House and Senate, Manning spent 37 years as an elementary school teacher. Representative Manning served as a member of the North Ridgeville Planning Commission and on the North Ridgeville City Council from 2006-2007, where she was appointed Finance Chairwoman and Council President Pro Tempore.
    During her time in state government, Manning has had the opportunity to utilize her extensive experience as an educator, as well as her understanding of local governments and small businesses, to champion and support numerous bills and initiatives. In the Senate, she served as Vice Chair of the Finance Committee, responsible for vetting the operating budget, which allocates funding for the state, including for schools and various projects in communities across Ohio.
    Manning earned numerous awards and citations for her work as an elementary school teacher in the North Olmsted City School system, including being named Educator of the Year by the North Olmsted PTA Council and the Teacher in American Enterprise Award from the Ohio Council on Economic Education. 
  • Click here to learn more about the bills Rep. Manning is currently sponsoring or cosponsoring

In this episode:

"The job as a teacher is much more difficult, but so much more rewarding, and I valued every day in the classroom."

• 1:30 - Manning's path to the state legislature
• 3:00 - How the experience in the classroom has shaped her experience in the legislature and the art of the "sandwich effect"'
• 6:00 - Serving as the chair of the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee
• 8:00 - Accepting input and working to add amendments
• 9:15 - "To me, it's not about politics, it's not what's best for Republicans or Democrats, best for someone to get reelected. Those things shouldn't play a role. What should play a role is, will this help our students in our classrooms?"
• 10:25 - Compromising on the third grade guarantee
• 13:00 - Getting House Bill 67 passed, providing needed flexibility on spring standardized tests
• 17:00 - Striving for report card reform 
• 18:45 - Working to address the state takeover law

"Being a third grade teacher, I always got my way in the classroom... but all of the sudden you have to compromise, and compromise is not a bad word."

Connect with us:

• Email [email protected] with your feedback or ideas for future Education Matters topics
• Like OEA on Facebook
• Follow OEA on Twitter
• Follow OEA on Instagram
• Get the latest news and statements from OEA here
• Learn more about where OEA stands on the issues 
• Keep up to date on the legislation affecting Ohio public schools and educators with OEA's Legislative Watch

About us:

• The Ohio Education Association represents more than 120,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who work in Ohio’s schools, colleges, and universities to help improve public education and the lives of Ohio’s children. OEA members provide professional services to benefit students, schools, and the public in virtually every position needed to run Ohio’s schools.
• Education Matters host Katie Olmsted serves as Media Relations Consultant for the Ohio Education Association. She joined OEA in May, 2020, after a ten-year career as a television reporter, anchor, and producer. Katie comes from a family of educators and is passionate about telling educators' stories and advocating for Ohio's students. 

This episode was recorded in late March, 2021.

"These tests are just a snapshot of one day, of one way, of how they're doing on a certain test... The tests did not do what the tests were supposed to do."

Featured guest: 

• Jane Mitchell, retired teacher
  • After a 40 year career, Jane Mitchell retired as an intervention specialist from Dublin City Schools in 2013. She got her Bachelor's degree in Social Studies and English Education from the University of Illinois in 1973, then pursued her first Master's from the University of Iowa in K-12 Developmental Reading, but since she was already working with so many children with special needs at that point, she went for another Master's in Learning and Emotional Disabilities from the University of Iowa. In the years since, she has earned over a hundred credits from various universities to further her professional development. Mitchell has taught all grades from preschool through college in five different states, almost exclusively serving students with special needs. She spent the last 25 years of her career in Dublin Schools, serving as the testing coordinator at two different elementary schools in that time. She is a proud grandmother to five and mother to three. Two of her daughters are teachers; the third is the host of this podcast. 

In this episode:

"Twice, I had kids get bloody noses on the tests and once, I had a kid throw up on the test. And when that happens, you have to stop testing because no one is going to be a good job while somebody is cleaning up barf, so the kids all have to take their break at that time while you clean up, but then the teacher, or in my case the testing coordinator because the teachers were so grossed out… would have to wear gloves and rewrite everything into a new test booklet, including all of the mistakes with spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and have it exactly the same—the only thing that’s better is the handwriting—and bag [the soiled test] up and mark it as hazardous waste and send it in along with the test that’s getting scored."

• 1:30 - From childhood dreams of becoming a nun to four decades in the public school classroom teaching students with special needs
• 3:25 - The duties of a testing coordinator and how she got roped into the responsibilities
• 5:00 - Lost tests, bloody noses, and barf, oh my!
• 6:20 - Dealing with a pants wetting incident, leaked test prompts, and language barriers
• 9:20 - Saving the tests from a plumbing disaster
• 10:45 - The evolution of standardized testing over the years and the move to punitive measures
• 13:40 - The failure to effectively define achievement in school or to level out the playing field for all children
• 15:10 - Thoughts on standardized testing during the pandemic
• 16:30 - Formative vs. summative assessments summed up in a Great British Baking Show explanation (Credit for this metaphor goes to OEA Education Reform Consultant Ellen Adornetto)
• 17:35 - Trusting educators as professionals to meet their students academic, social, and emotional needs... and voting for the other guy
• 18:10 - "Why do we pray to Cheez-its?"
• 19:00 - Trying to teach a previously non-verbal student to stop using a certain word

"It was so obvious that whoever came up with the stupid laws about testing had no idea what the tests do. The purpose was supposed to show us where the kids were lacking and needed help and needed more instruction, but you never even got that information until the kids had already gone onto the next grade and that information rarely followed them, other than their scores. The parents would get a score but wouldn't tell them 'he's having difficulty in algebraic thinking' or 'he's having difficulty with using a lot of adjectives in his writing' or whatever. It would never give you that kind of information. It would say proficient, not proficient, advanced; and so you suffered." 

Connect with us:

• Email [email protected] with your feedback or ideas for future Education Matters topics
• Like OEA on Facebook
• Follow OEA on Twitter
• Follow OEA on Instagram
• Get the latest news and statements from OEA here
• Learn more about where OEA stands on the issues 
• Keep up to date on the legislation affecting Ohio public schools and educators with OEA's Legislative Watch

About us:

• The Ohio Education Association represents more than 120,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who work in Ohio’s schools, colleges, and universities to help improve public education and the lives of Ohio’s children. OEA members provide professional services to benefit students, schools, and the public in virtually every position needed to run Ohio’s schools.
• Education Matters host Katie Olmsted serves as Media Relations Consultant for the Ohio Education Association. She joined OEA in May, 2020, after a ten-year career as a television reporter, anchor, and producer. Katie comes from a family of educators and is passionate about telling educators' stories and advocating for Ohio's students. She thinks her mom, Jane Mitchell, is the most amazing person in the world.

This episode was recorded in March, 2021.

Featured guest: 

• Jeff Wensing, Ohio Education Association Vice President
  • A high school math teacher from Parma, Ohio, prior to his election as OEA Vice President in Spring 2019, Jeff Wensing served as the President of the Parma Education Association and as the President of the North Eastern Ohio Education Association. One of Jeff’s accomplishments was organizing members and the community to elect a new local Board of Education majority in 2017. This successful undertaking highlights his skill set by coordinating with local mayors, city council members, other unions, and the candidates themselves. Jeff has a history of listening to members prior to implementing decisions, communicating thoughtfully throughout the process, and engaging all stakeholders with full transparency.

In this episode:

"I want to be clear that classroom teachers aren't against tests. We've invented testing, and testing drives instruction, and these [formative assessments] are the tests that mean something, that were given to students in real time and drive our instruction; We can differentiate based on our students needs - not standardized tests, where you get the results in the summer and you have no way to react to the results of those tests."

• 1:25 - House Bill 67's original intent to waive state and federally required tests this school year
• 2:15 - The problems with standardized testing requirements this year
• 3:15 - Reworking HB 67 in wake of announcement that federal waivers would not be offered and how the new bill offers graduation requirement relief
• 4:05 - Amendment in HB 67 creating a new path to graduation and provisions exempting schools from having to administer American History exams as well as requiring the the Ohio Department of Education to seek a waiver from federal accountability and reporting requirements
• 4:45 - The emergency clause in the Senate version of HB 67
• 5:45 - "Teachers aren't against tests...We test all the time." Teacher-Based Teams, Professional Learning Communities, and formative assessments to guide instruction
• 7:45 - State report cards and House Bill 200, which would replace A-F grades for school districts and buildings with terms like "exceeds expectations or meets expectations"
• 8:15 - "We're happy with the direction that it's going; we're not fully supportive of it at this time."
• 8:40 - Areas for improvement in HB 200: An opportunity dashboard and removing the Value Added component

• "I think it's fair when you're evaluating students that they know how they're going to be evaluated and rated, and I think that's fair for teachers, too, and the Value Added system is some mysterious system that hardly anybody, if anybody, can understand."

• 10:00 - The failures of the A-F report card system: "It's a blame and shame game"
• 11:40 - Senate Bill 1, creating financial literacy requirements for graduation, sounds great on its surface, but is an unfunded mandate that would create hardships in smaller and less wealthy districts, especially
• 13:00 - The fight to fairly and fully fund all of Ohio's schools by working to include House Bill 1 (the Fair School Funding Plan) into House Bill 110, the state budget
• 14:00 - Issues with proposed restrictions on how student success and wellness funds money can be spent that are currently in HB 110
• 15:00 - The importance of cultural competency training and trauma informed care
• 16:15 - Including health and wellness funding in the Fair School Funding Plan
• 17:00 - Hopes for finally fixing Ohio's broken school funding system this year

Connect with us:

• Email [email protected] with your feedback or ideas for future Education Matters topics
• Like OEA on Facebook
• Follow OEA on Twitter
• Follow OEA on Instagram
• Get the latest news and statements from OEA here
• Learn more about where OEA stands on the issues 
• Keep up to date on the legislation affecting Ohio public schools and educators with OEA's Legislative Watch

About us:

• The Ohio Education Association represents more than 120,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who work in Ohio’s schools, colleges, and universities to help improve public education and the lives of Ohio’s children. OEA members provide professional services to benefit students, schools, and the public in virtually every position needed to run Ohio’s schools.
• Education Matters host Katie Olmsted serves as Media Relations Consultant for the Ohio Education Association. She joined OEA in May, 2020, after a ten-year career as a television reporter, anchor, and producer. Katie comes from a family of educators and is passionate about telling educators' stories and advocating for Ohio's students. 

This episode was recorded March 17, 2021.

"I just thought to myself, if I could just bottle this moment up, just to pull out on a rainy day to remember that joy -- [My students] have a way of inviting all of us into something really, really special."

Featured guest: 

• Chris Williams, MEDL, Intervention Specialist, Columbus City Schools
  • Check out Chris' blog
  • Follow Chris on Twitter
  • "This is my 6th year as an Intervention Specialist in Columbus City Schools. I am passionate about students and the issues that impact them most. They teach me so much about joy, resiliency, and how to live wholeheartedly. I am especially proud of the job they have done learning through a pandemic, and their families have been the unsung heroes throughout this past year! I am also a Member Ambassador for Ohio's New Educators (ONE), a statewide network within the Ohio Education Association that supports early career educators."

In this episode:

"The students are always the equalizer. They have a way of grounding me... It's been a crazy year for everybody, but they have persevered and I'm proud of them." 

• 1:35 - Hanging in there 
• 2:15 - Leaning on families as educators navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and appreciating the value of the parent-teacher partnership
• 3:40 - Working with students with orthopedic impairments and complex communication needs and seeing them continue to learn even through the challenges of remote instruction
• 6:15 - Using the "jar moments" to maintain passion as an educator
• 7:20 - Keeping a journal to remember the moments that sustain you
• 8:15 - Creating a jar moment: The collective joy of one student's birthday party as a full family affair

"I just couldn't believe how lucky I was to be in that space and say I am his teacher."

• 10:40 - Sharing the story of one student, who is a refugee from Somalia, with the State Board of Education to advocate for students and public education
• 12:45 - Owing students your best every day 
• 13:20 - Learning lessons from students and forming impactful connections
• 14:30 - Advice for staying present in the jar moments: "What do we get to do today"
• 15:45 - Working through a year filled with grief and loss while staying present to what is here right here and right now
• 16:30 - Continuing to fight for racial and social justice
• 18:30 - Finding inspiration in other educators - "Even when we're feeling burnt out or tired, there are always people to pick you back up."
• 19:15 - Passion is contagious

"School buildings are such sacred places, and so many stories are colliding and so many experiences are coming in, and they really should be places where we give students everything they need and more."

Connect with us:

• Email [email protected] with your feedback or ideas for future Education Matters topics
• Like OEA on Facebook
• Follow OEA on Twitter
• Follow OEA on Instagram
• Get the latest news and statements from OEA here
• Learn more about where OEA stands on the issues 
• Keep up to date on the legislation affecting Ohio public schools and educators with OEA's Legislative Watch

About us:

• The Ohio Education Association represents more than 120,000 teachers, faculty members and support professionals who work in Ohio’s schools, colleges, and universities to help improve public education and the lives of Ohio’s children. OEA members provide professional services to benefit students, schools, and the public in virtually every position needed to run Ohio’s schools.
• Education Matters host Katie Olmsted serves as Media Relations Consultant for the Ohio Education Association. She joined OEA in May, 2020, after a ten-year career as a television reporter, anchor, and producer. Katie comes from a family of educators and is passionate about telling educators' stories and advocating for Ohio's students. 

This episode was recorded in March, 2021.